Öskudagur

1.
Posted byangela_(Respected Member 1732 posts) 13y
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Today in Iceland we have a day called Öskudagur, which just means ashday. Children dress up and go to shops and sing for sweets. It's a really fun tradition and some people don't want to stop when they grow up, so in my school where everyone is between the ages of 15 and 20 I have today seen one vampire, a transvestite, a naughty maid, 5 people wearing pyjamas (incl. myself) and a bunch of other costumes.

2.
Posted bysamsara_(Travel Guru 5353 posts) 13y
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In Ireland today is called "Ash Wednesday" - it's much more boring - we all go around with ashes on our foreheads looking very solemn and giving up certain pleasures (smoking, sweets, alcohol)...this lasts for a period of weeks known as Lent. it finishes on Easter Sunday.

it's a Catholic thing!

3.
Posted byKapuchok(Full Member 101 posts) 13y
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Yes in my country is also callled "ashday" !!The children won´t go to shops and sing for sweets has in Iceland..but we can see a bunch of cool kinds dressing has vampire or pijamas !! ehehAt night .. in some places in Portugal.. a few people will dress up has a undertaker to represent the funeral of the Carnival !lol It´s a litle bit strange, but in some (small) villages they do this kind of costumes or tradicion!!

4.
Posted bytway(Travel Guru 7273 posts) 13y
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It's Ash Wednesday here, too. Quebec used to be uber-Catholic up until the 60s or so. Families were huge, everyone went to church, the Priests ruled, and there was that overhanging guilt complex. Since the quiet revolution, though, the churches are pretty much empty.

5.
Posted bysamsara_(Travel Guru 5353 posts) 13y
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That's interesting - I never knew that Tway...

It's funny - I think the next generation arent going to suffer from any of that guilt trip....I mean our generation doesnt for the most part, but in Ireland I think there is still some residual guilt/shame handed on from our parents..

Mine, for example, are very catholic....so sometimes i do feel a bit "bold"

6.
Posted bytway(Travel Guru 7273 posts) 13y
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I was raised Catholic, too. I thought it was pretty strict here, but I hear about Irish Catholicism from my boyfriend and it seems a lot stricter where you are. He insists that since my Mom is Catholic and my Dad was Protestant (he converted to Catholicism years and years ago), I'm from a mixed marriage. I think he just does it to get my goat, though.

7.
Posted bysamsara_(Travel Guru 5353 posts) 13y
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Is your boyfriend Irish?

8.
Posted bytway(Travel Guru 7273 posts) 13y
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Yes, from Belfast. Well, a little town called Carryduff, just... north of Belfast, I think.

9.
Posted bysamsara_(Travel Guru 5353 posts) 13y
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Oh well, that explains it! Obviously everyone in the North is very concerned with the divide. I lived with two girls from belfast back in college and they used to get pretty heated about mixed marriages.

I'm sure you're well up to speed with the latest developments over here in the North - the current climate is quite bad (Sinn Fein is locking horns with the Irish Government big-time!)

10.
Posted bytway(Travel Guru 7273 posts) 13y
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It was so strange sometimes visiting there. Everyone was warm and welcoming, but then he'd tell me this street is dangerous, or that street is dangerous. We went to the Ulster Museum and they had an exposition on "the troubles". It's hard for someone from outside to understand, when all I see are nice, kind people who seem to be creating a divide out of something that should be drawing them together.

Then again, I told him it's a lot like the division between English- and French-speaking people here. Passions flare whenever it's election time. Or referendum time!